


Summation

by aerintine



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-13
Updated: 2012-05-13
Packaged: 2017-12-12 00:16:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerintine/pseuds/aerintine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene between 2x21 & 2x22.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [summerstorm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerstorm/gifts).



 

 

 

 

When they go to collect Jenna’s body, Elena insists on coming along.

They survey the scene. Jenna’s still lying in the middle of the stone; Jules and Greta’s bloodied forms are slumped nearby. Alaric clears his throat and stares at the ground. Damon squints at the horizon, his jaw firm and face stony. Elena takes in the sight of the bodies. She feels strangely numb. When she glances at Stefan, she sees he’s focused on her face, his own by turns concerned and grim. He briefly squeezes her hand.

The sun is out, the warmth urging them to deal with the situation quickly. No one knows how to contact Jules’ family, or if Greta has any family left, so this is where their story ends. Damon and Alaric set to digging graves.

_This is what we do now. Bury the dead. Where are we?_

Elena hangs back for a long moment, hand held snug in Stefan’s. She blinks and gulps, willing away any threatening tears. The only sounds around them are the birds, and the insistent thwap and slide of shovels.

Stefan releases Elena and steps forward, blanket in hand. Elena stands and watches as he opens the fabric and, as gently as he can, lifts Jenna onto it. He arranges her hands over her stomach, and moves to pull the sides of the blanket around her.

“Wait.”

Stefan pauses and looks up at her in question.

“I have to look,” she says. “I need to see her so I can remember this.”

“Elena, no one expects you to – “

“Yes, Stefan,” she interrupts. “At least, I should remember _this_.”

She kneels on the rock beside him. He nods and stands again, moving a short step back to give her space. Elena reaches out and touches the edge of Jenna’s sleeve, pulls it straight over her wrist where it slipped.

“This is what comes of secrets,” she says, as she touches each of Jenna’s gray and shriveled fingers. “This is my silence.”

_Where did you go?_

She concentrates on the stake still buried in Jenna’s chest. It gapes at her. It shouts its name.

_Klaus._

She sets her jaw and wraps both hands around the shaft. With a strong pull, it makes a hollow, tugging sound and exits her body. Jenna’s shoulders shift at the motion.

_Out of her. You get out of her. You can’t have her. You don’t get to -_

She looks at the wood resting quietly in her palms, its sides stained dark with blood.

_Where did you send her, Klaus? Where did she go?_

“I did this,” she says as she brushes Jenna’s hair away from her face. “I made this happen.” She tries to close Jenna’s eyelids, but they won’t budge. Jenna stares sightlessly at the sky.

“No.” Stefan shakes his head in earnest. “No, Elena.”

“ _Yes_. I can’t say I’m sorry. I can’t make it better. I don’t have any words, because all the words I should have said became _this_.”

Stefan places a hand on Elena’s shoulder. She curls in on herself at his touch. Doesn’t shake him off, but she moves as far as possible without breaking contact with him. He lets go.

“Elena, this isn’t your fault.”

“Isn’t it?” Elena stares at Jenna’s face. “Isn’t it exactly that?”

“You’re not responsible for what Klaus did. He killed Jenna to be cruel. That’s him, not you.”

_But where was I? Am I even here?_

“What’s more cruel? What Klaus did, or that I let her die this way? She never knew what was coming. I never told her _anything_ , so when Klaus came for her she – oh, God.” Her breath hitches. She flings the stake as far away from them as she can.

“You couldn’t have known. And if you had, you couldn’t have stopped him. Jenna wouldn’t blame you for that.”

“Except I’m the one still here, and Jenna’s not. If she’d known, maybe she could’ve…”

She looks over to where Damon is lowering Jules’ body into the ground. Alaric stands by, shovel at the ready.

_This is what we do, now. Where are we?_

“Did you know she was going to ask Alaric to move in with us?” She looks up at Stefan. He shakes his head.

“She was so excited. She bought a new dress. Jer and I were going to make dinner. It was cheesy, but we were going to wine him and dine him and now, she - ” her voice trails off.

“Now you’re here and she’s gone.”

Elena nods, averting her gaze to the ground.

“And that scares you.”

She looks up, startled.

“Hell yes, it scares me. What are we going to do without her, Stefan? There’s no one else. Who’s going to take care of us now?”

“You’ll take care of each other.”

Elena looks back at Jenna. Her face isn’t right. Elena rubs at a spot of dried blood on her cheek. Her skin feels dry and rough, not like Jenna’s skin at all. Elena has a flash of sense memory: the scent of jasmine lotion. The delicate way it hung in the air whenever Jenna walked by. The way she tucked her hair behind her ear. How she was never at her books without a spoonful of peanut butter in one hand, tapping her highlighter against the kitchen table with the other.

“How?”

“By doing your best. By being here.”

Elena pushes out a breath, harsh and grating.

“This _is_ my best. Right here.” She brings one half of the blanket over Jenna and tucks it under her.

“This is what I do.”

 

After they take Jenna to the funeral parlor (compelling the undertaker is a simpler matter than she would have thought), they drive Elena home. Stefan offers to stay but she puts him off.

When she enters the house, it’s quiet. She hangs up her coat and pulls her hair back with a spare elastic fished from her pocket.

There’s a mug on the table next to an open textbook. A tea bag rests on a saucer next to a half-eaten cookie (She and Jenna made them last weekend for a John Hughes marathon. They’d made it through two Molly Ringwalds and a Lea Thompson before falling asleep on either end of the couch).

One chair is overturned. That’s all the struggle she had time for. One chair.

Elena sets it upright. Carries the mug and plate to the sink. Closes the book and carefully places it in Jenna’s backpack. Wipes down the table. When she carries the bag to the coat closet, she stops and picks up a framed photograph of Alaric and Jenna on the side table.

Jenna’s grin is relaxed as she reclines against Ric’s side. She looks calm and happy. Like she fits.

Elena sets the photograph down. After hanging the backpack on a hook in the closet, she slowly makes her way upstairs.

 _Okay, then_ , she thinks. _Here I am. I’m here_.

She heads down the hall to make sure Jeremy’s suit is pressed.

 

 

 

 


End file.
